Backroom deal calls into question impartiality

The Save the Basin
Campaign has raised concerns that a recently-uncovered
agreement tells expert witnesses what they should say in
evidence to the Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry, breaking the
rules that expert witnesses must abide by.

“A previously
confidential Memorandum of Understanding between Wellington
City Council, the Basin Reserve Trust and the New Zealand
Transport Agency has come to light in documents prepared for
the current Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry,” explained Save
the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones. “The Memorandum
was signed in March 2013, and it says that all three parties
will support the construction of a 65-metre-long Northern
Gateway Building which is designed to block the proposed
Basin Reserve flyover from view – though design drawings
clearly show there will still be gaps through which the
flyover is visible.”

“But what concerns us most, in
terms of the hearing process, is that this Memorandum tells
supposedly independent expert witnesses called by the
parties to it what to say in their evidence,” Tim Jones
continued. “The Memorandum of Understanding states:

3.3
The Wellington City Council and the Basin Reserve Trust will
provide the necessary expert evidence to support the 65m
structure during the national consenting process.

but the
Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses, which all expert
witnesses are required to abide by, states in part

5.2.1
An expert witness has an overriding duty to assist the Court
impartially on relevant matters within the expert's area of
expertise.

5.2.2 An expert witness is not, and must not
behave as, an advocate for the party who engages the
witness. …”

“The WCC and the Basin Reserve Trust are
calling some very distinguished witnesses on cricket
matters, including Martin Snedden, Sir John Anderson, and
Don Neely. But Sir John Anderson and Don Neely are trustees
of the Basin Reserve Trust. Therefore, they are bound by
both the Memorandum of Understanding, which states that
their evidence is being provided to support the construction
of a 65 metre Northern Gateway Building, and the Code of
Conduct, which states that their evidence must be impartial
and that they cannot behave as advocates.”

“It is, to
say the least, unfortunate that the Basin Reserve Trust, WCC
and NZTA have placed a distinguished cricket historian in
Don Neely, and a cricket administrator with a long record of
service at national and international level in Sir John
Anderson, in this position,” Tim Jones concluded. “The
backroom deal contained in the Memorandum of Understanding
calls their impartiality into question and undermines the
credibility of their
evidence.”

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